Point Break
Super Anarchist
- Thread starter
- #41
So...........a Grateful Dead work story.
The Dead were playing in the evening at a very large outdoor venue in my 1st due area. This was....late 80's, I'd guess 87 or 88. The parking lot - huge parking as its a concert venue - is completely jammed. With that many deadheads in attendance we can always count on 1 or 2 medical calls there...or 3 or 4.....in fact the only ones worse were the all weekend rap/Lalapalooza music concerts....those guaranteed a no rest shift. They did learn to have the rappers leave their firearms in a "de-arming tent" that the PD did not go into on the way into and then out of the backstage area for de-arming and re-arming. Then they had to pass through metal detectors on the way into the backstage performers area. There were still stabbings and overdoses in the crowd but thats another story.
Anyway.........so turns out there were more tickets sold than "seats" and most of those were fake. So a large number of people were denied entry to the venue. They decided the way to express their displeasure was to set cars on fire. A lot of cars......the first engine company to arrive were met with beer bottles and other missiles so they withdrew. The local PD tried to quell what was now a full fledged civil disturbance but were outnumbered and also withdrew. A lot of shirtless/topless painted bodies dancing around the fires and throwing all manner of things into each separate growing "bonfire". I was dispatched to the hastily established Command Post located just over a freeway bridge on the opposite side of the freeway from the venue to coordinate the fire/ems response.
As I came up the LEO Lt. running the PD side said he was glad I had arrived because the engine company was hesitant to go back into the parking lot to extinguish the fires. I told him I agreed with them and until some sort of order and force protection was established I wasn't going to send any engines into that melee. He thought about it and said I see your point. We'll be ready to address that soon. Thats when I learned about "Code Charlie Checkmate".
Code Charlie Checkmate is a situational request for mutual aid sent to all neighboring law enforcement agencies. After about 30 minutes squad cars began showing up to the CP/staging area each with multiple LEO's inside. Most had helmets and nightsticks and were "ready to rumble", a number of conversations about "wood shampoo's". By now I had assembled a number of engine companies and paramedic units to treat the........detainees" also waiting at staging for the PD to gain control of the parking lot. Once they figured they had enough assembled, over the freeway bridge and into the parking lot they went in a line of cars all with their lights going. Pretty impressive sight at night. I decided the medical treatment area would be back across the bridge adjacent to the CP and the LEO's could bring the detainees there for triage/treatment prior to trundling them off to the county jail.
After about 15 minutes cars started coming back across the freeway bridge with detainees in the back in cuffs in various degrees of owies from having come out on the losing end of the confrontation with the PD. At that point the parking lot was judged secure and my engines headed over and started to put out the fires. Our piece was about 6 hours from beginning to end (except our fire investigators who were there all night and some of the next day). Cops were there for days doing the investigation and post on the incident.
While the whole thing was kinda surreal the one thing I remember most was that the concert went on. So while all the parking lot drama was happening you could hear "Touch of Grey" very loudly from the outdoor venue. It was...........an experience. That was the last time that venue had the Dead play. They had included it on their tour calendar pretty much every year up till then but were disinvited after that event.
Quite a night.
The Dead were playing in the evening at a very large outdoor venue in my 1st due area. This was....late 80's, I'd guess 87 or 88. The parking lot - huge parking as its a concert venue - is completely jammed. With that many deadheads in attendance we can always count on 1 or 2 medical calls there...or 3 or 4.....in fact the only ones worse were the all weekend rap/Lalapalooza music concerts....those guaranteed a no rest shift. They did learn to have the rappers leave their firearms in a "de-arming tent" that the PD did not go into on the way into and then out of the backstage area for de-arming and re-arming. Then they had to pass through metal detectors on the way into the backstage performers area. There were still stabbings and overdoses in the crowd but thats another story.
Anyway.........so turns out there were more tickets sold than "seats" and most of those were fake. So a large number of people were denied entry to the venue. They decided the way to express their displeasure was to set cars on fire. A lot of cars......the first engine company to arrive were met with beer bottles and other missiles so they withdrew. The local PD tried to quell what was now a full fledged civil disturbance but were outnumbered and also withdrew. A lot of shirtless/topless painted bodies dancing around the fires and throwing all manner of things into each separate growing "bonfire". I was dispatched to the hastily established Command Post located just over a freeway bridge on the opposite side of the freeway from the venue to coordinate the fire/ems response.
As I came up the LEO Lt. running the PD side said he was glad I had arrived because the engine company was hesitant to go back into the parking lot to extinguish the fires. I told him I agreed with them and until some sort of order and force protection was established I wasn't going to send any engines into that melee. He thought about it and said I see your point. We'll be ready to address that soon. Thats when I learned about "Code Charlie Checkmate".
Code Charlie Checkmate is a situational request for mutual aid sent to all neighboring law enforcement agencies. After about 30 minutes squad cars began showing up to the CP/staging area each with multiple LEO's inside. Most had helmets and nightsticks and were "ready to rumble", a number of conversations about "wood shampoo's". By now I had assembled a number of engine companies and paramedic units to treat the........detainees" also waiting at staging for the PD to gain control of the parking lot. Once they figured they had enough assembled, over the freeway bridge and into the parking lot they went in a line of cars all with their lights going. Pretty impressive sight at night. I decided the medical treatment area would be back across the bridge adjacent to the CP and the LEO's could bring the detainees there for triage/treatment prior to trundling them off to the county jail.
After about 15 minutes cars started coming back across the freeway bridge with detainees in the back in cuffs in various degrees of owies from having come out on the losing end of the confrontation with the PD. At that point the parking lot was judged secure and my engines headed over and started to put out the fires. Our piece was about 6 hours from beginning to end (except our fire investigators who were there all night and some of the next day). Cops were there for days doing the investigation and post on the incident.
While the whole thing was kinda surreal the one thing I remember most was that the concert went on. So while all the parking lot drama was happening you could hear "Touch of Grey" very loudly from the outdoor venue. It was...........an experience. That was the last time that venue had the Dead play. They had included it on their tour calendar pretty much every year up till then but were disinvited after that event.
Quite a night.
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